Famine by John Creasey Page A

that’s crazy!”
    â€œIt is understandably alarming,” said the ambassador from Lozania. “But is there no hope that this has been grossly exaggerated?”
    â€œPalfrey would hardly exaggerate,” Conlon objected.
    â€œGentlemen!” called the British Prime Minister sharply. “Each of you has been informed, each must report to his government as he thinks fit. We in Great Britain consider this to be potentially a very grave emergency, and arrangements are already in hand for the armed forces to help protect existing food supplies and crops. Dr. Palfrey will keep us all informed of new developments, and I shall continue to give him all facilities. Now, if you care to lunch–”
    Â 
    In a few moments he was in the centre of a group of anxious, excited ambassadors, Palfrey in the midst of another. He saw the ambassador from Lozania looking at him with obvious anxiety, and saw several other ambassadors join Clemente Taza. Then he had a sudden, devastating shock. Taza was an unusually good-looking man, with regular features, smooth skin, and controlled grace of movements; Lozanians being renowned for their good looks, and that undefinable quality which marked them as a race apart.
    It came to him now that Clemente Taza’s features were quite unmistakably like those of the creatures he had seen. It was in the bone structure of the face, the set of the eyes, the shape of the mouth. The similarity could not be mistaken once it had been noticed.
    Â 
    The best man to work on Taza was Jim Baretta, Palfrey decided. He could not get to a telephone quickly enough.
    Â 

Chapter Ten
The Anxious Ambassador
    Â 
    Clemente Taza, one of the most efficient and successful career diplomats in South America and an outstanding representative of his own country toyed with a small sliver of pâté de foie gras, then hurried from the Assembly Room. His chauffeur was waiting for him, and he was driven off immediately. The Lozanian Embassy was in Prince’s Gate, and the traffic through Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge was very dense that lunch hour. By the time Taza reached the fine old Georgian house, Jim Baretta was already sitting, double-parked, in a Mini-Cooper which did not earn a second glance. Two more Z5 agents were also watching the house; and others would come. Until Taza had been completely cleared of suspicion, he would be watched day and night. Every move he made, even his telephone calls, would be reported. Inside the Embassy were two Lozanians, each fiercely loyal to Z5; Baretta would be in constant touch with them.
    Taza went inside. “Tense and worried,” Baretta later reported.
    Taza went straight to the first secretary.
    â€œThey were together for an hour,” one of the Z5 agents reported. “A tape recording will be sent as soon as practicable. I do not know yet what subject was under discussion.”
    The first secretary left the house in Prince’s Gate immediately after his long talk with Taza.
    â€œHe went direct to London Airport,” one of Z5’s agents reported.
    An hour later, another report from inside the Embassy reached Palfrey, who was now back at his office.
    â€œThe first secretary was on board the eight o’clock flight to New York.”
    Within an hour, another message reached Palfrey from the Lozanian Consulate in New York City.
    â€œTwo seats have been booked on tomorrow’s early flight from Kennedy Airport to Lozan.”
    Lozan was the capital of Lozania.
    â€œNo other member of the Embassy staff appears to be aware of the reason for the first secretary’s journey,” stated another report. “The ambassador is now conducting normal daily business. He is obviously preoccupied.”
    Palfrey studied these, and many other reports, during the late afternoon, feeling a new weight of anxiety and depression. He kept his mind as unprejudiced as he could, but the possibility of early results made him hope